Monthly Archives: June 2008

I don’t think we’ve commented on the deal Israel reached with Hizbollah over the weekend. It sounds like a huge victory for Hizbollah, one that Israel will have cause to regret conferring. As Caroline Glick describes it: In exchange for the bodies of two dead soldiers – Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser – Israel. . .will release six murderers from prison and send them to Lebanon for a hero’s welcome. »

I wrote here about Writing 5, a mandatory course for most Dartmouth freshmen. This course gave rise to threatened litigation by Priya Venkatesan, a former instructor at Dartmouth, against students who questioned the radical premises of her course. Although Venkatesan is not typical of those who teach Writing 5 at Dartmouth, I suggested that she may not be atypical in one respect – the left-wing ideological slant of her course. »

Barack Obama gave a speech on patriotism today in Missouri. As always when Obama waxes “eloquent,” the media swooned. And, as always, the speech raised interesting questions if you actually read it. The implicit premise of the speech was that Obama’s patriotism is being widely questioned. As far as I’ve seen, that isn’t true. What has happened is that Obama’s judgment and political ideology have been questioned because he has »

Thomas Pyle, President of the Institute for Energy Research, made this interesting observation today: Members of Congress have been questioning witnesses and pounding podiums for the news cameras, but they have done nothing to increase American oil production by even one single barrel. Families are paying the price of Washington’s willful refusal to do what we all know must be done. American taxpayers own the federal lands, and they own »

I was struck by this Yahoo News headline: “McCain critics on left and right attack war record.” I was aware of critics on the left. The always-appalling Wesley Clark attacked McCain as “untested and untried,” and attempted to defend that remarkable claim–I can’t offhand think of anyone who has more obviously been tested and tried than John McCain–on Face the Nation yesterday: SCHIEFFER: Well, you went so far as to »

Watching the emergence of Barack Obama this year I have experienced at least a slight sense of deja vu. With modifications and variations, the Obama phenomenon was anticipated by the rise of Minnesota Fifth District (Minneapolis) Rep. Keith Ellison in 2006. I didn’t know anything about Ellison when he won the endorsement of the DFL (Democratic) Fifth District convention in May 2006. The endorsement kicked off a competitive four-way primary »

Our friend Major Eric Egland has posted an eloquent 45-second YouTube video regarding Massachusetts Tenth District Rep. William Delahunt’s disgraceful remarks to Cheney chief of staff David Addington. We wrote about Delahunt’s remarks here, here, here, here, and here. Please check out the video and consider doing as requested. To comment on this post go here. »

To secure its place as one of the best-ever nation’s tournaments, Euro 2008 needed only a pretty good final match. That’s about what it got. On the plus side, play was open from the early moments of the match, with Germany coming out on the attack and Spain fighting back after about 15 minutes. Thereafter, Spain played brilliantly (the second plus), but Germany managed to stay close (the third plus). »

North Korea has, perhaps, given up its nuclear weapons program. It has dramatically blown up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor complex, following up on its promise last year to disable its nuclear facilities, and has agreed to inspection of its remaining nuclear facilities. In reaction to these actions, President Bush has said that if adequate verification procedures are negotiated over the next 45 days, he will rescind the »

The motto at American Solutions’ web site is Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less. That’s both sound public policy and a winning platform for November. Go here to sign the petition, as over 1.2 million people already have. The organization’s goal is 3 million signatures: The site has other resources too. Here, you can see a list of elected officials who have endorsed the campaign. Go here for opportunities for »

The Milwaukee Brewers snapped the Twins’ ten-game winning streak last night, so maybe I’ll find some time to catch the soccer final between Spain and Germany, which is televised around the same time as today’s Twins game. Paul has written extensively about this year’s Euro soccer tournament, but I’ve remained skeptical about the sport. After reading this article about the level of interest in the match in Germany, however, I’m »

From his perch on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy sings a song of himself. He specializes in grandiloquent assertions that are long on begged questions and pronouncements of the ipse dixit variety. Here are a few highlights from past terms of the Court: Planned Parenthood v. Casey (joint opinion with Justices O’Connor and Souter), reaffirming the “essential holding” of Roe on the unconstitutionality of laws restricting the right of »

In principle, I can’t support the use of military power where no important national interest is at stake. And it’s hard to see what interest we have in Zimbabwe. But the temptation to overthrow Robert Mugabe, one of the world’s cruelest tyrants, is strong. The current “election” campaign has been an opportunity for Mugabe to flaunt his despotism. This, though, is going a little too far: A baby boy had »

Last week in Berlin, at a location close to both the Holocaust memorial and the former Nazi center of power, the Third Transatlantic Conference took place. Its stated purpose was to address “common solutions” in the Middle East. During the conference, Iran’s former deputy minister of foreign Affairs, Dr. Muhammad Javad Ardashir Larijani, stated that “the Zionist project” should be “cancelled” because it “has failed miserably and has only caused »

Mark Levin’s radio show caught up with disgraced Congressman Bill Delahunt to ask him about his expression of solidarity with al Qaeda against the Bush administration, which we wrote about here, here, here and here. Unfortunately, on Levin’s show Delahunt simply repeated the same incredible tale that he told shortly after his encounter with David Addington. Here is the audio: To see how ridiculous Delahunt’s excuse is, let’s reproduce his »

With only the Euro 2008 final remaining to watch, I spent some time studying the recent NBA draft. In doing so, I came across this video of the Senior Night performance of a Vanderbilt player named Shan Foster. In this game, Foster hit nine consecutive three-pointers, all of which were contested, and scored 42 points against a quality Mississippi State team. One of the three-pointers was the game-winning basket. In »

The recent focus on the AoA lawsuit against Dartmouth (which has been dismissed at the request of the AoA) caused me to neglect reporting on a piece of threatened litigation against the college pertaining to a different, though perhaps not entirely unrelated, matter. A few months ago a former Dartmouth writing instructor, Priya Venkatesan, informed some of her former students that she was planning to sue them, along with Dartmouth. »